The Holy Spirit. About the holy spirit The person and work of the Holy Spirit is at the core of everything we do here at Valley View Church. We believe when the Holy Spirit is present, we should expect observable, supernatural evidences. We will be transformed. We will experience God in our midst. We will minister in power. We believe all disciples are called to use their natural and spiritual gifts to minister—or serve—others and his church family in the power of the Holy Spirit. How can I be filled with the holy spirit? 1 Believe that the Father wants to empower you for ministry (Acts 1:8) 2 Simply ask (Luke 11:11-13) 3 Be assured that God will not send you something false; do not fear receiving a substitute 4 Relax and receive the work of the Holy Spirit in and upon you. Historical context In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit empowered individuals for special works to fulfill God’s purposes. Access to God was representational (through anointed leaders); seasonal (at prescribed times); and corporate (not individual). For most individuals, personal intimacy with God was a foreign thing! The Old Testament contains prophecies of a hope that God would pour his Spirit upon all people and come to live among them. The prophets pointed to a day of God’s continual, abiding presence in his people through the Holy Spirit. 1 John the Baptist prophesied that Jesus would “baptize with the Holy Spirit.” 2 “Baptize” is a metaphor that means “to dip or plunge.” It was quite natural for John to use his immersion in water to illustrate the coming “immersion of the believer with the Holy Spirit.” So to be “baptized in the Holy Spirit” is to be surrounded by, and filled with, the Holy Spirit. Jesus was water baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit prior to his ministry. 3 Jesus promised his disciples that he would come to live in them by the Holy Spirit. 4 In his final words to the disciples, Jesus reassured them, “I am going to send you what my Father has promised” (Luke 24:49). He then restated John the Baptist’s prophecy of the coming baptism in the Holy Spirit. 5 The Father’s promise to send the gift of the Holy Spirit was initially fulfilled on Pentecost. 6 The apostle Peter explained the phenomena of this initial outpouring in these words: “This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people…’” Historical context (cont’d) The book of Acts tells of the accompanying results of that initial outpouring of the Spirit: powerful teaching and preaching; explosive church growth, especially through power evangelism; genuine fellowship; signs, wonders, and miracles; persecution; prayer meetings marked by unity and the supernatural; the manifest judgment of God; and supernatural guidance. The holy spirit transforms He brings us a “new heart” or “new spirit” when we “repent and believe.” Every believer receives the Holy Spirit—God’s personal, continual, abiding presence—upon conversion. He changes our character, conforming us to the image of Christ as we cooperate with him through spiritual disciplines and life in community. The holy spirit empowers When the Holy Spirit is present, we will minister in power through teaching and preaching; healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead; moving in signs and wonders; seeing the lost saved; speaking in tongues and prophesy; and receiving direct, supernatural guidance through dreams, visions, and words from the Lord. At the Valley View Church, we believe the evidence of the Holy Spirit is not “tongues” but rather the powerful life of God among his people. Tongues are a gift of the Spirit, but not the necessary for salvation.. We cannot claim that the Holy Spirit baptizing and filling people was merely to get the infant church started; it continued to happen over the span of many decades, as illustrated throughout the New Testament. In Acts, we see people “being filled with the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit coming upon, being poured out upon, and falling upon them; and believers receiving the Holy Spirit.” Surveying the usage of the words in Luke, Acts, and Paul’s letters, we can conclude that one baptism (at conversion) and many fillings (subsequent) is perhaps the most precise usage of the terms. However, because of the more fluid nature of the term “baptize,” we feel that it is permissible to refer to someone being “filled with the Spirit” as a parallel to being “baptized in the Spirit.” The term “baptism in the Holy Spirit” is fitting because of what it conveys: immersion. However, the label isn’t the issue—being filled with the Spirit is. You can call it whatever you want (empowered, filled, baptized, touched, zapped). The relevant questions are: Have you been immersed with the Holy Spirit? Have you experienced the power of the Holy Spirit like the Bible shows? No single event or record in the Bible provides “the model” or “the sequence” of one’s repentance, faith, water baptism, and Spirit baptism. If there is a pattern, it’s that the Holy Spirit “blows where he wills.”18 We must resist the temptation to put God into a box. Rather, we must be marked by obedience to Ephesians 5:18, which says, “Don’t be drunk on wine…Instead, be filled with the Spirit.” In this way, fillings of the Holy Spirit for effective and powerful ministry and service will be normal. 1 Joel 2:28-30; Isaiah 11:2, 32:15, 44:3; Ezekiel 18:31, 36:26-27 2 Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33 3 Matthew 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-10; Luke 3:21-22; John 1:31-34 4 John 7:37-39, 14:15-26; Luke 24:44-49 with Acts 1:4-8 5 Acts 2:17 6 Acts 2:1-4 7 Acts 1:5 18 John 3:8 8 Acts 2:14-37, 7:1-60 9 Acts 2:41, 47, 5:14, 42, 6:7, 8:26-40, 9:1-17, 31 10 Acts 2:42-47, 4:32-35 11 Acts 3:1-10, 4:33, 5:12, 15-16, 6:8, 19:11-12 12 Acts 4:1-3; 14:19-20 13 Acts 4:23-31 14 Acts 5:1-11, 13:9-11 15 Acts 13:2-4 16 Acts 2:38 17 2 Corinthians 3:17-18
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 23:50:32 +0000
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